Word: digest
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...United States, depression and social unrest lingered, while in Europe, fascists had taken power in Germany and Italy and had launched a bloody war in Spain. But on the other hand, the freshmen were young, the prestige of their College had never been higher, and promised the Literary Digest, Alfred M. Landon was on his way to the White House. Things could have been worse...
Funk made the entire nation self-conscious about its vocabulary. For 20 years he turned out a monthly column on vocabulary building for the Reader's Digest, and he wrote innumerable books: 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary, 25 Magic Steps to Word Power. No pedant, he praised Walter Winchell for adding phffft to the language, and H. L. Mencken for contributing booboisie. "Simple and clear expression," he said, "is usually the difference between a sizzle and a fizzle...
...course of his career, Funk suffered one major mishap with words. In 1936 he was made editor in chief of Literary Digest, Funk & Wagnalls' weekly compendium of comment on current affairs, and he promptly ran a poll that showed Alf Landon trouncing Franklin Roosevelt...
Trouble is, the Digest culled the telephone book for the names to be polled at a time when the country was still struggling out of the Depression. Sampling only those people wealthy enough to have phones gave an inaccurate cross-section of voters. After the election returns were in, the Digest was denounced by press and pollsters alike; it soon folded. But in 1948, when the pollsters predicted a Dewey victory over Truman, Funk enjoyed a belated revenge. "I do not want to seem to be malicious, but 1 can't help but get a good chuckle...
...attempts to bring to new life the history of the long dead-and simultaneously to provide the interested but unscholarly reader with a course in Biblical history. He conscientiously talked with the leading diggers, visited the principal sites, swallowed the relevant literature whole. Unhappily, he has been unable to digest all his information. The Source, a laborious and interminable book that is the current Book of the Month Club choice, is at best an avalanche of unsorted facts and artifacts...